USA TODAY
Talented and gifted students in the USA aren't challenged, are bored and are often ill-prepared for the workforce, says an Education Department report out today.
Students lag behind those in other countries while the United States is ``squandering one of its most precious resources'', the report says.
The department's Pat O'Connell Ross told the National Association for Gifted Children conference in Atlanta Thursday that educators tend to focus most of their attention on the needs of average students or slow learners.
Little is done to accommodate the needs of gifted children, she said.
Talented and gifted children typically excel in math, writing, dance, history, athletics or any other intellectual or artistic endeavors that are complex, difficult and novel.
In 1990 38 states served more than 2 million gifted students at all levels.
The USA has an ``ambivalence toward intellectual accomplishment'', Ross says. ``We have names for kids that we think are too smart'' -- nerd or dweeb.
Fred Brown, principal of Boyer-town Elementary School in Pennsylvania, says gifted children often aren't seen as having special needs.
Also Brown says, ``there is a problem with limited funds'', with gifted programs often getting ``leftovers''.
Compared with top students in other countries, the report shows the USA's brightest students are undistinguished at best and poor at worst.
-- U.S. seniors taking Advanced Placement courses in science were last in biology compared with top students in 13 other countries: 11th out of 13 in chemistry and ninth out of 13 in physics.
-- In math, the top 1% of U.S. students ranked 13th out of 13 in algebra and 12th of 13 geometry and calculus.
When comparing U.S. and Japanese high school seniors enrolled in college preparatory math classes, Japanese students at the 50th percentile scored slightly higher than the top fifth of U.S. students.